Electricity is now available in 101 villages in Papua and West Papua

Children in North Kocuas, district of West Aifat, Maybrat Regency are practicing the Ayase dance at night utilizing local solar electricity – IST

Ransiki, Jubi – PT PLN (Persero) launched the operation of electricity in 101 villages in Papua and West Papua Provinces.

Director of Maluku-Papua Regional Business of PT PLN (Persero), Ahmad Rofik, at the launch in Neney district, South Manokwari Regency, Thursday (October 26), said the launch was also to commemorate the National Day of Electricity.

“This is as a gift PT PLN for the people of Papua and West Papua,” said Ahmad.

He explained that President Joko Widodo has launched a program called ‘Indonesia Terang’ (Light up Indonesia). Then PT PLN also launched the program of ‘Light up Papua’. The program targets up to 2020 villages in these two provinces to be electrified.

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Ahmad said that the total 101 new villages with electricity this year are spread in the working areas of PLN Sorong, Merauke, Timika, Manokwari, Jayapura, and Biak.

General Manager of PT PLN Papua and West Papua Region, Yohanes Sukrislismono, said through the program ‘Papua Terang’, up until 2017 PLN would be lighten up 117 villages in Papua and West Papua.

“Our target is 379 villages, with 117 villages receiving this program, 268 more villages are left for us to finish in December 2017 so they can be Christmas presents,” he said.

In the district of Neney there are 7 villages that have electricity in this program. The presence of PLN in the district was welcomed by the local community.

South Manokwari Regent, Markus Waran, said Neney is one of the inland areas of the district, before the road was built this area can only be penetrated through small planes.

“Roads had been built and now electricity has come in. It’s been long awaited by the community of Neney who used to be living in the dark,” he said. (Antara/Zely)

Jakarta imposes internet blackout in Papua as violent protests spread

People run as fire engulfs a market in Fakfak regency, in eastern Indonesia’s West Papua province, Aug. 21, 2019. AP

Papua, Jubi – Indonesia imposed an internet blackout to restore order in its easternmost Papua region on Wednesday, officials said, during a third straight day of unrest sparked by the perceived harsh treatment of anti-Jakarta protesters by government security forces.

Demonstrators torched several stalls at a market and a few buildings in Fakfak, a regency in West Papua province, and more than 1,000 policemen were deployed to the region on Wednesday, national police spokesman Muhammad Iqbal said.

“The ministry decided to temporarily block telecommunication data services starting Wednesday until the situation in Tanah Papua returns to normal,” the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology said in a statement, using the local term for Papua and West Papua provinces, which make up the Indonesian half of New Guinea island.

Tensions rose when local residents who rallied outside the Fakfak regent’s office on Wednesday clashed with a rival group of protesters armed with machetes and iron bars, local resident Freddy Warpopor told BenarNews.

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Security forces could do little because they were far outnumbered, he said.

“Members of the local community wanted to voice their aspirations to the regency chief, who promised to convey their message to President Joko Widodo,” Warpopor said.

During the rally in Fakfak, the crowd chanted, “We are not Red and White [the colors of the Indonesian flag]. We are the Morning Star [the banned Papuan separatist banner],” witnesses said.

Iqbal, the police spokesman, said 1,200 officers had been deployed to West Papua from neighboring provinces. More than 300 soldiers also arrived in the province on Tuesday to beef up security.

“We are talking to community and religious leaders,” Iqbal told reporters. “Soldiers and police are not being equipped with live ammunition.”

He insisted that things were under control, especially in Manokwari regency and Sorong city, the scenes of violent protests on Monday and Tuesday.

Demanding self-determination

On Friday, dozens of people were injured when Papuan students who were demonstrating and calling for self-determination clashed with counter-protesters in Malang, a city in East Java province, police and Papuan activists said.

The next day, anti-riot police fired tear gas on a Papuan students’ dormitory in Surabaya, East Java’s main city. They arrested and briefly detained 43 people there over accusations that they had desecrated an Indonesian flag, local media reported.

In response, thousands marched in Papua and West Papua provinces on Monday to protest the alleged racist treatment by security forces and residents against the Papuan students.

Protesters in Manokwari, the capital of West Papua, attacked the provincial parliament and set fire to several other government buildings, including the provincial House of Representatives, police said.

Also on Monday in Sorong, a crowd set fire to a section of a prison, prompting a riot that led to the escape of more than 250 inmates, officials said. Most of the escapees remain at large, police said.

No violence was reported in Sorong on Wednesday, but protesters submitted a petition to the mayor demanding that the government act against non-indigenous Papuans who used racist slurs.

“The protesters also demand that the mayor limit the growth of the non-indigenous population, because all this time the influx of outsiders has been out of control,” a local resident, Poly Way, told BenarNews.

The petition urged the president, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, to visit and apologize to the Papuan people in person, he said.

A low-level separatist conflict has been taking place since the 1960s in Papua, where the population is predominantly Melanesian. Papua declared its independence from Dutch colonial rule on Dec. 1, 1961, but that was rejected by the Netherlands and later by Indonesia

In 1963, Indonesian forces invaded the region and annexed it. In 1969, the region held a referendum in which security forces selected slightly more than 1,000 people to agree to Papua’s formal absorption into the nation, according to human rights advocacy groups.

Violence has been on the rise in Papua after separatist rebels allegedly killed 19 members of a crew working on a government road project and a soldier in Nduga regency.

In response to the killings, the government sent additional 600 troops to Nduga.

The anti-insurgency campaign has forced more than 20,000 Nduga residents to flee to the forest and neighboring regencies to avoid being caught in the violence, local rights and church activists said.

At least 182 people had died of hunger and disease after fleeing, they said. (*)

“The benefits for indigenous people can’t be seen yet. So people ask who exactly is the road for? Because the there is still illegal logging in the central highlands, the highlands are being destroyed, it’s easier for outsiders to exploit natural resources”, said Pamungkas at a press conference on the conflict in Nduga regency at the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) offices in Jakarta on Thursday July 18.

“Pig livestock from Toraja comes into Wamena. So the Wamena’s people’s pigs don’t sell. This threatens their economy. It is increasingly easy for outsiders to come to Wamena, so Wamena people see the road as a threat to their future”, explained Pamungkas.

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Pamungkas said that the Trans Papua Highway project only connects regencies or cities and the benefits of this are not felt by the Papuan people. Meanwhile roads between villages and districts which are in fact what is actually needed are not being built.

“Yet roads like this (between villages and districts) are very important, for example simply to sell vegetables produced by farmers in markets”, said Pamungkas.

According to Pamungkas, the Trans Papua Highway actually facilitates the exploitation of natural resources which can be seen from large number of trees being felled and gold mining.

“Moreover when LIPI researched development on this road, we found many logging camps for logging in the direction of the Papua Lorentz National Park, which should a protected area”, explained Pamungkas.

Pamungkas is of the view that the government should immediately hold a dialogue with Papuan social leaders with the assistance of appropriate mediators.

“Because the most important thing at the moment is liberating the Papuan people from the memory of suffering which has built up over time. Particularly the acts of violence by security forces which has resulted in trauma for the residents of Nduga regency, Papua province”, he explained.

Local people’s rights

Expressing a similar view to Pamungkas, Amnesty International Indonesia researcher Aviva Nababan believes that the Trans Papua Highway does not provide any clear benefits. He also questions the government’s planning process for the road.

“Looking at it again from the process. Did the government design its function by thinking about the rights of the people the road impacts on? Did they really follow the principles of involving local communities? If not, this needs to be fixed. We think it shouldn’t be seen from the perspective of western Indonesia. There’s a road, lovely. There’s a road, great”, said Nababan at Jakarta LBH on Friday July 19.

Nababan warned that Indonesia has a commitment to fulfill the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) meaning that it must involve local communities in all development planning.

He also asked the government to respect the rights of indigenous Papuans. Because according to Amensty’s research, there have been alleged human rights (HAM) violations which have made Nduga residence traumatised and afraid of the security forces.

“When there are problems of HAM violations related to law enforcement in Papua, the tendency is that the cases are rarely investigated. Let alone followed up, or satisfactory accountability”, he explained. (*)

Korowai people ask health ministry for their promise on health services

An integrated team from Jakarta and a team of Provincial Health Office of Papua while visiting Korowai some times ago. – Jubi/Agus Pabika

Jayapura, Jubi – KOPKEDAT (The Remote Area Humanitarian Care Community) invoked the promise of the Ministry of Health when visiting Korowai for a survey in 2017. The Chairman of KOPKEDAT Yan Akobiarek said the promise has never actualised until now. “The main purpose of their visit was ‘Puti Hati’, the Korowai girl whose injury formed a hole on her cheek and became a concern of the central government,” he told Jubi on Friday (28/6/2019).

Further, he said the locals urgently need adequate health services, in particular in Danowage and Brukmakot villages where located in the forest areas. “ I think there will be a huge change after the integrated team returned to Jakarta. But there is no significant change. I hope the newly elected president along with the Papua Governor can help us to accommodate the issue of health here,” he said.

Similar with Akobiarek, a health cadre in Danowage Mrs Perin Lambe, who also the wife of an evangelist Jimmy Weyato, asked both the elected president and governor to pay more attention to the importance of health services in Papua’s remote areas. (*)